Letter to Friedrich Engels, July 17, 1855

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 17 July 1855


First published in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 2, Stuttgart, 1913 and in full in MEGA, Abt. III, Bd. 1, 1929
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 39


MARX TO ENGELS

IN MANCHESTER

[London,] 17 July 1855 28 Dean Street, Soho Dear Engels,

Strohn is here and, unfortunately, prevents me from sending an ARTICLE to the Tribune today. I therefore intend to send off on Friday,[1] under Tuesday''''s date, an article on the latest ministerial crisis, and I should be very grateful if, at the same time'', you would send me one on, say, the Prussian army (assuming that nothing occurs in the theatre of war),[2] so that 2 articles go off at once'. For I shall be compelled to draw a bill on the Tribune next week, or rather overdraw and appreciably so at that, as I had already overdrawn last time, and this time several days have been missed.

A German returning from Yankeeland, Gustav Pöckel, brought me a line or two from Edgar[3] and more detailed news about him and other acquaintances. Of late, Edgar had been working as a farm labourer near New York and intended to sell his farm in Texas. Schramm[4] is said to be dying of consumption and is also in New York State. Ewerbeck passed through about eighteen months ago on his way to visit Cabet in Nauvoo. Fickler took over the Shakespeare Hotel after Lièvre went bankrupt, making the most of the occasion to do the dirty on him. Jacobi[5] affairs are prospering; the Yankees like his 'serious' and 'reserved' manner. Field Marshal Blenker and a few other notorious swindlers from the days of the revolution comedy have bought up real estate with the stolen funds and, as regards swagger and brutality towards their workpeople, are said to put the Yankees completely in the shade. Heinzen has re-established himself in New York with his Pionier'. All in all, things are going very badly for the Germans over there, at one and the same time harassed by the Maine Law, KNOW-NOTHINGS[6] and the crisis in agriculture and industry. Hence a substantial re-emigration to Germany, Canada and South America.

Through the mediation of German merchants in Paris (one of them a supporter of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung') Dronke has received an affirmative reply to his application for permission to return to Paris. He proposes to set off this week, as soon as he has recouped the 'costs of production'.

Imandt is in Scotland for 4 weeks on a visit to Heise. He has placed his COTTAGE in Camberwell at my disposal in the meantime. The whole FAMILY will move there and avail themselves of the change of air until we can afford something bigger.

As to the enclosed letters:

No'. I'. From Lassalle in Paris. No'. II'. I send you for your amusement Szeredy's Asiatic Chiefs', together with the fellow's appeal to me.[7]

No'. III'. Letter from Florencourt (the only one you need return). Contains an account of how things stand with the legacy.[8] You will observe on the one hand that the legacy has increased by £515, while on the other all manner of delays are militating against its rapid realisation. This Florencourt is not the notorious one,[9] but his brother.

Your

K. M.

Do you know of any book on the êtres[10] of LITTLE Johnny Russell?[11]

  1. ↑ 20 July
  2. ↑ On Marx's request Engels wrote 'War Prospects'.
  3. ↑ Edgar von Westphalen
  4. ↑ Conrad Schramm
  5. ↑ Abraham Jacobi
  6. ↑ State of Maine since 1851. Know-nothings—a secret political organisation formed in the USA in 1854 against emigrants; the members of this organisation swore to answer 'I know nothing' to all questions about its activity and aims
  7. ↑ Szeredy's letter to Marx of 15 July 1855 containing a request for assistance in publishing and distributing his novel Asiatic Chiefs in Britain and the USA
  8. ↑ See this volume, pp. 526 and 541.
  9. ↑ Franz von Florencourt
  10. ↑ life and doings Peter Imandt (see previous letter)
  11. ↑ Marx made this request because he intended to write the pamphlet Lord John Russell (see present edition, Vol. 14)